The plot thickens on wayward NorthWest pilots....

....the investigation into the circumstances leading to overshooting Minneapolis gathered a bit of steam today. Seems the guys were using laptops to go over schedule changes due to the recent merger of NorthWest and Delta. With holiday bids now being submitted, anything is possible. The problem: it is way against policy to use a personal computer in the cockpit or do anything that distracts a pilot from doing the job...and not the part where you try to figure out your days off. Without the data from the flight recorder...remember, it only keeps a 30 minute loop, we are not going to know any more than the content of the pilot's testimony.Unfortunately for these employees, the info so far may already call for dismissal. I'm betting this kind of thing goes on more than we might like to know as passengers but when you overfly your destination, it is going to be problematic. This could be one of those very tough public example kind of situations.